Google Launches an On-Demand Customized Audio News Service

“News on smart speakers is not living up to the promise of what it could be.”

People like smart speakers, but there are a lot of things they don’t like about news on smart speakers.

As recent research by Nic Newman — published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and written up by us here — shows, consumers aren’t the biggest fans of the sort of news briefings that publishers have been pushing out. Common complaints: The briefings are too long. They’re not updated frequently enough. They’re too repetitive; when bulletins from different news providers run together, stories get duplicated. And it’s hard to skip stories you’re not interested in — or hear more of the kind that you are interested in.Google is hoping to address some of these concerns with a new experiment, announced today, that will deliver more personalized audio news feeds through Google Assistant. “We are combining Google News with the interactivity and voice experience of Google Assistant,” said Liz Gannes, a former reporter for Recode, Gigaom, and AllThingsD who is leading the initiative. The company has spent the past year working with around 130 publishers to build a prototype of a news radio station that customers can control — using voice to skip stories, go back, or stop and dive further into a given topic. It’s built using each story as an individual chunk, rather than a briefing of stories chunked together. This video helps it make more sense:

“Imagine if you ask for news and get a quick update on the stories of the moment, then you get stories that speak to your personal preferences and interests. It’s like your radio station,” said Gannes. If you tune in in the morning on your phone, you might get a quick update. If you listen in your car — or anywhere else throughout the day — stories you heard earlier won’t repeat.”

Comments

December 7, 2018 - 4:44 pm

VancouverTVGuy

December 9, 2018 - 7:21 am

BMCQ

Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, and many other Tech Giants should and must be Broken Up.

Anti Trust Law Suits are not enough, they become too time consuming, cost too much, never really solve the Big Problem, and get bogged down in a Cesspool of Legalize and Bureaucratuc Bungling.

Break Up is the only answer and it should be Number Four on the White House Agenda right after the New Year.

They need to Secure the Border by erecting some kind of Wall andThe Border must be Patrolled by the addition of the Military,

There must be Migration/Immigration Reform where unwelcome Migrants from any country can be rejected without going through the ridiculous Asylum Sham, and they MUST Deport Convicted Felons. Along with that they do however require some kind of DACA Reform, it only makes sense. Unnecessary Family Re Unification must be done away with and Anchor Babies should Get NO Citizenship Rights. Canada needs to adopt the same Legislation.

The U.S. also needs a real worthwhile working Health Care for U.S. Citizens, it is the right thing to do, Obama Care is a Failure and something workable and truly affordable must replace it.

Trade andTariffs especially with China and Intellectual Properties should also be on that list. President after President and ALL other World Leaders have ignored this Major Problem for e0myears, it is very important that the Trump Admin Change and Fix this problem. It is time for other Free World Nation Leaders to Stand Up and assist Trump on this.

Then as mentioned the Break Up of Big Tech to top it all off.

Those mentioned are a lot to take on but they are all Political Winners for tgeRepublicans. Most Important is the fact that they are Good for America, U.S. Citizens, Canada, and the rest of the Free World.